Lawmakers, including Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and Mr. Gephardt, huddled around tables decorated with Mexican and American flags.
The lawmakers, Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and Peter F. Vallone Jr., chairman of the Public Safety Committee, also want Mr. Kelly to remove the names of those arrested but later found not guilty.
The suit is filed against lawmakers including Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, and Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, who was the chairwoman of the ethics committee at the time of the initial inquiry.
"Mr. Barr, 40, a first-time elected official, has raised nearly as much money this year from political action committees run by major banks, credit unions and insurance companies as longtime lawmakers like Speaker John A. Boehner and other party leaders".
The Legislature's two ranking lawmakers, Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. and Senate President Richard J. Codey, said that composition reflected their party's majority in both houses of the 120-member Legislature.
Over the fierce objections of the long-haul trucking industry and Republican lawmakers, including Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, the Bush administration has approved hefty new penalties for the makers of diesel engines that do not reduce their emission pollutants by October.
The documents, and interviews, also show that the committee often coordinated its efforts with Tom Craddick, a Republican state representative whom lawmakers elected speaker of the House after the 2002 elections.
By his count, he trained more than 250 lawmakers, including Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), senator and future vice president Joe Biden (D-Del.), and Rep. James M. Jeffords (R-Vt.).
After his conversation with lawmakers, the speaker conceded to reporters that it might not have been "politically the smartest thing in the world" for House Republicans to put themselves between a tax cut and the 160 million American workers who would benefit from it, and to allow President Obama and Congressional Democrats to seize the momentum on the issue.
The announcement came in a "Dear Colleague" letter to lawmakers from Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, and the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi of California, who said they decided to terminate the program after a review by outside consultants raised concerns about its costs and effectiveness.
